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India is likely to announce a five-year plan to cut expensive vegetable oil imports worth $10 billion a year in next week’s federal budget by providing farmers with financial incentives to switch to oilseeds from grains, said three senior government officials. Higher oilseed production in India, the world’s biggest buyer of cooking oils, will cut palm oil imports from Malaysia and Indonesia and trim soyoil and sunflower oil purchases from Brazil, Argentina, Russia and Ukraine. The officials, who asked not to be named as the discussions are still private, said ...

Russia, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, is considering introducing a formula-based export tax for wheat from June 1, two sources familiar with government talks, told Reuters. The tax may be set at 70% of price per tonne minus $200, they said. One of the sources added that Russian officials are still debating about what to accept as the price for the formula. Russia’s economy and agriculture ministries did not reply to a Reuters’ request for comment. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Polina Devitt; additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; ...

Commodity prices are rising rapidly as the manufacturing side of the global economy bounces back from the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic and lockdowns last year. By November, global manufacturing activity had recovered all of its pandemic-related losses and merchandise trade volumes were more than 1% higher than prior-year levels. In contrast, much of the service sector across North America, Europe and even Asia remained closed. The result has been a surge in commodity consumption, lifting the prices for almost all commodities above year-ago levels (tmsnrt.rs/2M5JwIW) and boosting producers’ ...

Historically, critical infrastructure systems like steel mills have had distinct vulnerabilities due to being purpose-built systems, designed to run with very little variation, according to Mark Fabro, president and chief security scientist at Lofty Perch, a consulting firm focused specifically on operational technology and industrial controls systems for cybersecurity. In the past, cybersecurity was not a component of the build specifications or the procurement process. The risk of an attack was limited to anyone with physical access to the plant, creating opportunity for physical damage, malicious operation of the system ...

Associations in China’s steel industry have been offering thoughts on how to bring down China’s steel output in 2021 in response to the call by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and China Chamber of Commerce for Metallurgical Enterprises (CCCME), an alliance of China’s privately-owned steel mills, has been the latest with a few options in the aspects of steel trade and steelmaking raw materials consumption. CCCME proposed that China may consider reducing steel exports while increasing steel imports, curtailing iron ore imports while buying more steel scrap ...

U.S. corn futures rose more than 1% to hit a six-year high on Monday, driven up by strong Chinese demand. Soybeans also gained drawing support from concerns over adverse weather in South America, while wheat also rose. The most active corn futures on the Chicago Board Of Trade Cv1 were up 1.4% at $5.54-1/2 a bushel by 0257 GMT, near the session high of $5.55-3/4 a bushel, the highest since June 2013. Corn gained 2.3% in the previous session. Analysts said corn is continuing to draw strong support from Chinese ...

Oil prices rose on Monday buoyed by falling inventories and hopes of a swifter global economic recovery, although halting vaccine rollouts and renewed travel restrictions capped gains. Brent crude was up 79 cents, or 1.4%, at $55.83 a barrel by 1215 GMT. U.S. crude gained 61 cents, or 1.2%, to $52.81. Both benchmarks gained nearly 8% in January. “Positive risk sentiment is one factor helping oil prices. The outlook of an ongoing decline in oil inventories over the coming weeks, as result of lower production from Saudi Arabia, is also ...

Despite the devastating downturn of 2020, most global majors held up quite well during the market turmoil, a Rystad Energy comparative analysis reveals after measuring key upstream performance metrics. Total outshined all other peers, as the French company not only exceled in financial and operational performance, but also was the only major to replace all of the year’s produced resources. Total has been able to keep its operating cost per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) consistently below $5 in the past five years. Although it is not the leader among ...

A sustained rise in global oil prices has U.S. shale producers pondering something few expected to be considering after last year’s tumble: how to allocate rising cash flows among new production, dividends and stock buybacks. U.S. shale producers will generate about $73.6 billion in cash from operations this year, up nearly a third over last year, according to data firm Rystad Energy, based on oil selling for $50 a barrel. Shale patch results that begin rolling out Tuesday with ConocoPhillips are expected to remain in the red, but lower spending ...

U.S. ethanol output has remained generally weak in January amid shabby profitability, though a shot of optimism arrived this week on a report that China, which somewhat shunned the American biofuel four years ago, has already secured a record annual haul for 2021. China has never been a leading player on the U.S. ethanol export front and the corn-based biofuel historically accounts for a small portion of American farm product trade. But possibilities could be strong given China’s generally thin supplies of agricultural commodities and its record purchases of items ...

Integrated oil and natural gas companies are coming off a turbulent year, as the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world and the oil market in 2020. Shelter-in-place orders sacked fuel demand, and global oil prices crashed to record lows in April 2020. The combination sent even the largest energy companies scrambling to preserve cash and defend their bottom lines. All of them made hefty capital spending cuts and streamlined operations. Some trimmed dividends, and many wrote down assets. The final quarter of 2020 will no doubt prove to be another challenging ...

Last week, I watched as President Biden promised a return to the “restless, bold optimism” of yesteryear. Yet even as he opined on his commitment to govern for all Americans, his staff was quietly working to deprive vast swathes of citizens the opportunity to earn a living, lift themselves from poverty, and pursue the American dream. These actions came in the form of executive orders – no doubt the first of many – effectively terminating the Keystone XL pipeline and oil and gas projects on Alaska’s North Slope. Many will ...

Chinese gas buyers could begin reengaging with US LNG producers under the Biden administration after a hiatus, and the LNG industry needs to tackle acute underinvestment to maintain natural gas’ role in the global energy transition, Vivek Chandra, chief executive of Texas LNG, said in an interview. Texas LNG, a 4 million mt/year LNG export project in the US awaiting final investment decision, was one of the many US LNG projects that was in talks with Chinese buyers before US-China trade tensions soured relations. “I think America is already reengaging ...

U.S. stock index futures bounced 1% on Monday following a steep sell-off on Wall Street last week, as a shift in the retail trading frenzy to silver drove up mining stocks and investors awaited manufacturing data later in the day. The iShares Silver Trust ETF jumped 9% in premarket trading as silver broke above $30 an ounce for the first time since 2013 with an army of retail traders storming into the metal after betting billions of dollars on stocks last week. Silver miners Hecla Mining Co, Coeur Mining Inc ...

The continuing rise of stock markets worldwide could be the result of growing hopes of economic recovery, and does not necessarily mean that prices are overly inflated, European Central Bank governing council member Klaas Knot said. “We definitely see high valuations,” the Dutch central bank governor said in an interview on Dutch public television. “Stock markets could be preempting the roll out of vaccines and the reopening of economies. We might be entering the roaring twenties, we don’t know. “Also interest rates are low, which is important for stock valuations ...